She discussed her exploration of themes of separation, fragmentation, and memory through multiple artistic disciplines, including her compelling photographic work that combines autobiography with performative ceremony.

Note: The audio quality is somewhat impaired from the 2-minute mark to the 7-minute mark. In her ritual invocation, Campos-Pons speaks the name of a relative, followed by, "Are you with me?"

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons was born in Matanzas, Cuba, and trained at the Instituto Superior de Artes in Havana. In the 1980s she studied at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. Since then she has exhibited globally in venues such as the Johannesburg Biennial, the Dak’Art Biennial in Dakar, Senegal, the Guangzhou Triennial in China, and the Venice Biennale. In 2006 the Indianapolis Museum of Art presented a 20-year retrospective of Campos-Pons' work.

Her art is found in many collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Polaroid Collection, the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), and The Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as the MOCRA collection.

Campos-Pons received Boston’s Woman of Courage Award in 2011 and the Woman of Color Award in 2012. She currently teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.